Iron-On and Fabric Marker T-Shirts

My younger sister works at Hobby Lobby, so my kids usually get some sort of crafty gift from her. Christmas was no exception. She bought some cute black velvet (I know, how can black velvet possibly be cute, right? Just wait and see...) iron-ons for them. Robots for Mr. B and a butterfly and dragonfly for Miss A. She was also kind enough to supply the t-shirts and fabric markers for them, but the fabric markers got left in Reno with my youngest sister when we visited for New Year's. So, I procrastinated and then procrastinated some more, all the while having a 3 and 5 year old nag me, and finally went to Micheal's and bought some fabric markers. Luckily Jo-Ann had a 50% off coupon in the paper, so I was able to get them cheap. Now, I thought buying fabric markers would be simple, but it wasn't. Do you know how many options there are? Well, do you? Too many, that's how many! You can buy individual markers for about $3.50, a set of six for about $10, or a set of 20 (I think) for $50 (I think, really, it was too much money and too many markers for me to justify). Well, we finally picked out the bold markers, even though the set had green, lime green, and yellow, but no orange. Really?! Lime green, green, and yellow? Don't they know that green and yellow make lime green? Maybe, but they also must know that red and yellow make orange, and that's why they didn't have orange in the set. Must be.

But, I digress. We bought the markers (50% off!) then headed home, after looking at all the animals in the pet store because they were good at the craft store. Then, over the course of the next several days I colored their shirts. Miss A was allowed to do some of her own coloring, while I did touch-ups. However, Mr. B is not allowed near markers, and I wasn't about to let him loose on a shirt that I wanted to look good, so he told me where to put each color. Now, even though Miss A wanted to make sky above her dragonfly and butterfly (which would have looked very tacky), and stray blue marks in the middle of her shirt, they turned out pretty good. I did have to do some mods on Miss A's shirt that I wasn't planning to make, but what I wanted to do was make the flight paths of her two insects, but that didn't happen.

The iron-ons were pretty easy to do. Just follow the directions. The only thing I was worried about was all the extra black velvet around the image, but, since there wasn't any adhesive on that part, there was nothing to worry about.


My only gripes: The images were small (the packages are the same size as a 3x5 index card, then I cut each card in half to separate the two images on the shirts), so that made the markers hard to use. However, in the images' defense, the markers were the bold tip. I have a feeling a different tip would have been better. I would like to try a brush tip some day, and a set of fine tips would be very handy too. However, the bold ended up being a blessing for all the extra work I had to do on Miss A's shirt to cover-up all her 'creative-ness'.
That rainbow and the clouds, yeah, those were the things I wasn't planning to do, until Miss A got all creative on me. :) But she loves the rainbow, and I love the way the clouds wrap around the sides, so there's a little something extra on the back. However, that rainbow took a few hours of back-breaking work on the living room floor to color. Two coats for each color.
My favorite part of Mr. B's shirt? The big gears that I free-handed with ideas from a Google search for gears, so they wouldn't all look the same. The blue one in between the robots, I don't like that one. That was my first attempt. But the other ones make up for it. At least I think so.

Christmas Sparkle

I finally, finally, finally took some pictures of my tree. I know, right? It took forever. I took a few close-ups of some of my new favorites just for your enjoyment. My tree is in the process of turning into a sparkly, shimmery, winter woodland wonderland. I've been buying birds,
a few pine cones, some new icicles, leaves, and anything else I think qualifies. And my wonderful baby sister (though she is the mother of two little boys, she will always be my baby sister) even bought me two glittery butterflies.
I admit, I was skeptical of the butterflies at first, especially because of the glitter, and, who sees butterflies in the winter when there is snow all around? But, now I love the butterflies. In my imaginary, winter woodland wonderland, butterflies are all around. They are magical, and every Christmas tree needs some magic, right? So, without further ado, the Christmas tree! (insert hand flourishes, ta das, etc., here)

Ummmm, another month has passed

I can't believe it!! Another month has gone by. I've been doing most of my "computering" on my iPad, and the Blogger interface doesn't like me on there. Or maybe I don't like it. Hpmh. Anyway, life has flown by again. Last time I posted it was the day before Halloween. Now the Christmas season is upon us. Thanksgiving, as usual was lost in the holiday shuffle. This year I saw Christmas stuff up with the Halloween stuff. That makes me sad. Sad because Thanksgiving gets forgotten, and I feel like Thanksgiving is a great time to focus on what we are thankful for, and get us thinking about the upcoming holiday season. I am a Christian, so the thing that I am most grateful for is Jesus and all He has done for me. Thinking about my blessings at Thanksgiving time helps me to focus on Him and helps me to remember what Christmas is all about. Right, Linus? I pretty much got my Christmas shopping done this summer. I do not enjoy all the hustle and bustle and stress of the season, and I abhor Black Friday. There is nothing that I need so bad that I have to go shopping before midnight until nine the following morning. Nothing.

Instead I helped the Dear with our storage room in the basement. It was much more fulfilling than spending all morning shopping and then being a grump the rest of the day. Saturday we worked on the storage room some more. And we went to Home Depot to buy some more paint. The kids and I looked at the Christmas decorations (they love those stuffed animated animals!) while the Dear did his shopping. And then we did some more work. We have church at nine on Sunday morning, and then, to give us something to do for the rest of the day, we put up the tree. I bought a bunch of new ornaments last year, after Christmas, so we were able to put those up this year. It was so fun. I am loving the more "naturative" feel of the tree. Birds, acorns, leaves, pine cones (both real and fake), berry branches, icicles, snowflakes, and some poinsettias. Not to mention the regular ornaments. I become more in love with my tree each year. :)

After I had my nativities all set up, the Dear made a comment about how now I should have enough, since we just got a hand-me-down porceilin set from his grandparents. I only have three multi-piece sets (one of which is the Little People set), two single piece sets, and then three ornament sets (two are just one ornament, and the other is a plush baby Jesus with some animals set). I still have two empty bookshelves. I need more nativities. :) Oh, I also have a gel window cling nativity set. But still, not enough. I love that the children have so many reminders of why we celebrate Christmas. As I type this, Mr. B, who is three is playing with the plush ornaments and the Little People Baby Jesus's. So sweet. The kids have all the Little People characters piled into the Little People bus. I wonder where they are going? I hope they always keep the Spirit of Christmas with them and that they don't focus so much on the presents. I think it helps that there are no presents under the tree, but the Little People nativity, and that I'm not spending my free time running around trying to find that perfect gift. They have plenty of toys. We will spend some time over the next week or so buying some gifts for the Salvation Army Angel Tree, but that is all. Our big present will be having Grammy and Grampy move here. We are looking forward to next week with happy anticipation.

One of the blogs I follow, I Am Momma, Hear Me Roar, had a challenge last week to write 50 things you are thankful for. I procrastinated, and never wrote them. But it's something I've been wanting to do, so, even though Thanksgiving has past, I am still going to post them. Here they are, in all their glory (and in no particular order):

1. My husband

2. Miss A, especially her willingness to be helpful

3. Mr. B and the times when he is happy (he's been a total grump as of late, so I cherish each happy moment and hug and cuddle)

4. My warm home

5. God, of course

6. Jesus Christ, and His Atonement for my sins

7. My job. I truly love it, and the people I work with!

8. That my kids can be in the same building as me while I work. Today I walked out of one of my classrooms to do some copying, and Mr. B was out in the hallway looking for me so I could help him zip up his jacket to go outside. I love still being able to help them, even if I am at work.

9. My children's teacher, Celinda. She's great, and I'm so glad she loves them.

10. My husband's job. I better stop with the explanations

11. My sisters

12. My parents

13. All of my in-laws

14. Nieces and nephews

15. Sunshine

16. Good friends

17. Great neighbors

18. A king-size bed

19. Modern medicine

20. Awesome people at my physical therapy place

21. Food

22. Clothes

23. A car

24. Electricity

25. Indoor plumbing

26. Hot, uninterrupted showers

27. Nature

28. A body that is in decent physical condition

29. That my wrist is gaining back its range of motion

30. Church teachers that love my children

31.Freckles on noses

32. Deseret Industries (Idaho's version of Goodwill)

33. Saving money

34. Insurance

35. The fact that there is no snow to shovel outside, even though it is almost December

36. A garden that provides food for us

37. How to read

38. Knowledge in so many different forms

39. Silence

40. Good music

41. My iPhone, so I always have my calendar with me

42. Safety gear that keeps us safe. Without it, I could have died this summer

43. The gospel of Jesus Christ and the faith I have in God's plan for me

44. Technology, when it works :)

45. The talents and skills I've been given and learned

46. Love, kindness, and understanding from others

47. Empathy

48. The Armed Forces that keep this country relatively safe

49. My education

50. All of my memories, and the ability I have to remember so many things.

And there you have it. Of course some things are silly, and some are rather serious, but above all, I'm thankful for my family, my faith, and that I am still alive and God protected me this summer when I could have very easily died because of my own stupidity. I must do better and do something good with my life, since it's been preserved for some reason.

Oh my goodness!

I can't believe how long it has been since I've posted here! I feel like I've been so busy.

Work has been going good. I seriously love my job! I work as a part time teacher's aide at my kids' Montessori school. So, while I am working Miss A and Mr. B are in class (the same class, since preschool and kindergarten are combined) working too. I love working with the 4th-6th graders. It is my favorite age group. When I was working on my Elementary Education degree my favorite grade was fifth grade. I love the content and the kids are still a good age. They are the total turds that you get in middle school and high school. Granted, there are still some turds in my two classes, but all in all, things are great. With working 4 hours a day, I come home pretty spent. For some reason my body revolts after working for four hours, so I usually end up vegging for about two hours after I get home. Things are not getting done around this house. Then, with the inevitable start of winter (we always have an early snow the first week of October) we've been trying to get the yard and garden and everything closed down for the winter. And, my parents bought a house six miles away, after living 2000+ miles away, so now we are harvesting their apple trees until they move out here.

I'm really looking forward to my mom being here, because maybe then I will be able to get my craft on again. I have some big plans. Revamping an old steamer trunk, refinishing my nightstands, painting my living room, painting my kitchen, and lots of little sewing/mending projects. Plus, I'm sure with their house there will be plenty of projects too. I think she'll want some landscaping done, but that will have to wait until next year. With the move of my parents, that means lots of tools too, so maybe I'll get ambitious on my blocks again. I have yet to sell a set, but maybe someday. :)

Halloween is tomorrow, Miss A is probably going to be a fairy, in the costume my older sister made for her several years ago (Heather, I finally took out the last extra hem!). And who knows what Mr. B is going to be. For the church Halloween party he was supposed to be a knight, but he didn't like the costume. He really wanted to be Cinderella, but the Dear said "NO!" LOL. Mr. B has plenty of options though, so we'll see what happens. I'll take the kids around the 'hood, and the Dear will stay home and hand out candy. We only have a few bags, so I might need to run to the store tomorrow, in between school and PT, and cleaning the house some more. The Dear helped out lots yesterday, and we got the kitchen mostly clean (still need to sweep and mop, but Sunday is a day of rest). I need to finish putting away the laundry that mostly got washed on Wednesday, except for a second bout of flu this week for Mr. B yesterday, so there are plenty of linens to put away.

Does anybody else ever feel like their little people only contribute to messes, and that there is no way you will ever get ahead? And do you get discouraged and give up at least twice a week? Oh, good. Glad I'm not the only one.

Mostly Fixed

Whelp, it's been almost a week since I got my cast taken off. I still don't have much movement in my wrist, which is bugging me, but I'm trying. At least now I can type with both hands and write with my right hand again. There's quite a bit I can do, but I'm not much good at lifting heavy things yet. I have a little bit of inflammation in my wrist joint, which, if not taken care of, could turn into arthritis. 30 is too young to have arthritis. So I've been massaging the joint with peppermint lotion, until I can get my hands on some peppermint oil. And I'm taking some ibuprofen to help with the inflammation. And it seems to be going away a little bit. My surgery scar is still pink, and the skin pulls around it, but I'm hoping with time (and more lotion) that too will fix itself. All in all things are going well for my wrist. My voice is another thing.

Ever since I started working at my childrens' school, I've been fighting a cold. No surprise there really. Well, around Friday it finally started to get the better of me. When I'm working I don't get many opportunities to drink a lot of water, so my system has had a hard time flushing everything out. So Friday I was a little hoarse. Saturday my voice was pretty much gone. But I had a nice massage at my chiropractor and he suggested orange juice with cayenne pepper for the hoarseness. So I've been drinking lots of that. And even though my voice was still pretty shot on Sunday it's about back to where it was on Friday. I guess I need to drink more OJ with cayenne pepper to get it back to full force. And, in case you were wondering, I can't really taste the cayenne pepper. Maybe I'm not putting in enough? Oh, and I'm still not drinking as much as I would like, so I'm having a hard time flushing my system, and I probably need to rub my lymph nodes more, but I'm getting a little bit better. Now if I could just find time for projects again.

See, I work in the mornings at the school, so by the time I get home and have lunch I am beat. And I still have my chores at home that need to be done. Between the wrist I broke on July 29th, surgery on August 5th, and starting work on August 15th, I've had a hard time finding a groove. And do you realize how hard it is to sweep with just one working hand? Yeah, not very much fun. Did you realize your forearm can take the place of your hand when you are desperate? Yeah, I didn't either, until I got desperate. (Enter sarcasm) That was fun. I used my forearm to help sweep, to operate a paper cutter, to hold lots of things, it was great. (sarcasm finished) So, anyway, now that I'm mostly fixed I hope to catch up on housework, get some more canning done (though it's been great having my husband help out so much), and hopefully get back to crafting. Thanks for reading!

Travel Report

For those of you who are curious:

Put an X by the states you have been to. The average is 8; how do you match up? Just for fun, put an O beside the states where you have lived for 4 weeks in a row or more. For curiosity's sake, I'm making bold all of the states I've been in this summer alone, from May through today. Airports don't count!

Alabama - X
Alaska - X, O
Arkansas-
Arizona - X
California – X, O
Colorado - X
Connecticut -
Delaware -
Florida - X
Georgia - X
Hawaii -
Idaho - X, O
Illinois - X, O
Indiana - X
Iowa - X
Kansas - X
Kentucky - X, O
Louisiana -
Maine -
Maryland -
Massachusetts -
Michigan -
Minnesota - X, O
Mississippi - X
Missouri - X
Montana - X
Nebraska - X
Nevada - X
New Hampshire -
New Jersey - X
New Mexico - X
New York - X
North Carolina - X, O
North Dakota -
Ohio - X
Oklahoma - X
Oregon - X
Pennsylvania - X
Rhode Island -
South Carolina - X
South Dakota - X
Tennessee – X, O
Texas - X
Utah – X, O
Vermont -
Virginia – X
West Virginia - X
Washington - X
Wisconsin - X
Wyoming - X
Washington, D.C. - X

Broken

Well, I got myself into some trouble. My brakes on my 4-wheeler failed me when I was going to fast. I broke my wrist (in two places!) and the 4-wheeler. I'm having surgery on Friday to fix it (one week to the day from the wreck), and until I'm healed I won't be posting. I broke my right wrist (I'm right-handed, of course), and typing and/or crafting with my left hand only doesn't work too well. For those of you who like gross bruises and swelling, here are two pictures taken last night (Tuesday, August 2nd).